He's My Father
by greengirl82
Summary: Emily's estranged father shows up and Hotch doesn't trust him when the man asks to spend time with Emily...


**He's My Father**

Disclaimer: CBS is the sole proprietor of all things Criminal Minds related...

Summary: Emily's estranged father shows up and Hotch doesn't trust him when the man asks to spend time with Emily...

Timeline: AU Present Day

A/N: So this popped into my head and I wanted to see what everyone thought of it.

Thanks for reading, do remember to review when you're done.

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><p>"Love and fear. Everything the father of a family says must inspire one or the other." Joseph Joubert<p>

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><p>Hotch sat in his office, when he looked up and saw Emily make her way up to his office, and walk in without knocking.<p>

_'Uh oh'_ Hotch thought _'Something is definitely wrong.' _

"What's wrong?" Hotch asked seeing the brunette sit in the visitors chair and huff out a sigh.

"Ray called me." Emily said quietly, biting her lip, "He wants to see me."

"You're father?" Hotch asked seeing her raise her eyebrow at the man's title "Why after all this time?"

"He says he's dying and that he'd like to get to know me again before he passes." Emily murmured then look up at him.

"Yeah right" Hotch muttered, "After thirty years of nothing? Not even a greeting card, he just decides to call you up and say, 'hey lets spend sometime together?' Bullshit."

Emily looked down at her fingernail, picking at it, Hotch noticed and groaned.

"You told him yes?" Hotch said "Sweetie, the man walked out of your life when you were ten."

Emily looked up, with a sad look, "He's my dad."

Hotch got out of his seat, "Honey, I know that, but how can you be sure that this is even true? How do you know if he's really sick?"

Shrugging her shoulders, "Why would someone lie about dying?"

Hotch pulled back, "Well we're not really the best people to ask about that, are we?"

Emily chuckled, "I only told him I'd spend one day with him, just one day to talk."

Nodding, he placed a kiss on her forehead, "And it's today isn't it?"

"How'd you know?" Emily asked.

"You're practically biting your lip off, and because today is the day that Dave's in back to back meetings, you didn't want to hurt Dave's feelings." Hotch said "Have you told your Mother?"

Shaking her head, "She's at some political conference in Spain."

"Ok" Hotch said, "I'm not going to tell you this is a bad idea, but just don't get your hopes up."

Emily kissed his cheek, "Thanks for understanding."

Hotch watched her leave the bullpen, he picked up his office phone, "Anderson, come up here."

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><p>Emily sat at the coffee shop, trying not to pick at her nail. She sighed when she looked up at the person entering the small cafe.<p>

Picking up her hot chocolate, she cursed herself for picking this place to meet her estranged father.

'_Raymond Prentiss' _Emily told herself, _'The man who left the day after Valentine's Day for a business meeting and never came back. The man who I remembered took me took me to a carousel park for my tenth birthday.' _

Emily looked up when she heard a throat clear, and saw her father, Ray standing in front of her.

"Hello, Emily." Ray said smiling at her.

"Ray" Emily said extending her hand to shake.

"How about a hug for your old Dad?" Ray asked sitting across from her.

"I'd rather we didn't" Emily said politely, "No offense, but it has been thirty years. So how'd you find me, because I know my mother sure didn't give you my number."

Ray cleared his throat, "I saw your picture in the paper, about that Doyle case."

"Of course, that's something I don't really feel like talking about" Emily muttered, "So you're dying?"

Ray looked over at her, "Yeah, I am."

"From?" Emily asked.

Ray looked over, "Living the wrong kind of life. You know how it is."

Emily placed her hand on her hot chocolate, "So what do you want, Ray?"

Ray fiddled with his fingers, "I wanted to see how you were. I wanted to see what kind of person my daughter had grown up to be."

"After thirty years?" Emily asked, "Look I'm sorry you're dying, but this, after thirty years? It's not something you can just make up for."

Ray bit his lip, and Emily looked away seeing her own reflection and mannerisms in her father, "I'm sorry, Emily. I'm sorry I walked away."

"Why?" Emily asked turning to look at him, "Why did you runaway? Just up and leave?"

"I wished it was something simple, Emily" Ray said, "But I just wasn't happy. Your mother and I fought all the time."

Emily played with the rim of the hot chocolate lid, "Yeah well, spending the day isn't going to fix anything or make up for lost time, Ray. Nothings going to change in a day."

"I'd like to try, Emily" Ray told her as she looked out the window.

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><p>"It wasn't all bad times, Emily. You remember the day I pulled you out of school on your tenth birthday and we spent the whole day riding the carousel?" Ray said chuckling<p>

Emily sighed, she wanted to say, _'I remember how you abandoned the family less then two months after my birthday.' _

"No, I don't." Emily lied, "Look, you wanted to spend the day with me, getting to know me, fine. I get that, but I don't need some trip down memory lane. So what do you want to know?"

"Are you married, you have kids?" Ray asked, "I read from the paper that you're a profiler for the FBI?"

"Not married, no kids" Emily said, "I'm seeing an agent from my team. He has a son and yes I'm a profiler for the Behavioural Analysis Unit."

"And your Mother?" Ray asked, "How is she?"

"She's fine. Mother's working on a post" Emily said, "She's in Spain."

Ray chuckled, "That's one of the things I hated about Lizzie's job, that we always had to move. She couldn't have picked out something simple to do with her life."

Emily's head shot up, "You don't get to say that about her."

"What?" Ray asked.

"You don't get to rank on her career" Emily said standing up, "You know what I can't do this, I can't sit here and listen to you rag on my Mother. She may not be perfect but she didn't bail out because life got to hard."

Emily walked away from the table, when she heard Ray follow her out, "Emily? Emily. Stop."

"What?" Emily said turning around, "What do you want from me?"

"I just want to get to know you." Ray said, "I want to spend time with my daughter."

"Don't call me your daughter" Emily said "I haven't been your daughter for thirty years."

Ray rubbed his head, "Sorry, I'm sorry that I said that about your Mother's job."

"You know what, this isn't fair" Emily said, "I was doing fine without you, now you show back up in my life. I can't just automatically forgive you, Ray."

"I don't want to be forgiven" Ray said, "The past happened, I made the choices that I did. All I want is a chance to be in your life now."

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><p>Emily leaned back against the wall, she saw the gaunt look on Ray's face, even without being a profiler or knowing he was actually dying she could tell he was unwell.<p>

If she wanted closure at this time in her life, she knew she'd have to give him a chance.

"Fine" Emily said, "I can't make promises, but I won't be try and snap at you..."

Ray sighed, "Good. Because there's a place I want you to see."

Emily stood in front of the gate, she looked over at Ray, "You've got to be kidding me, Ray."

"Where's that adventurous little girl that would jump at the chance at this?" Ray asked.

"She grew up" Emily said biting her lip, "And she thinks this is a very bad idea."

"Come on" Ray said grabbing her arm, "You only live once."

"I don't need a Magic 8 ball to tell me this out come is not good." Emily said following her father to the chain length fence.

"Can you climb over in those boots?" Ray asked looking down at the black work boots Emily wore.

"Yeah" Emily said, "If I can survive being hit by a cab in these boots, I don't think climbing a fence while be so tough."

"You got hit by a cab?" Ray said climbing over the fence "How'd that happen?"

"Chasing a terrorist" Emily said smiling when she thought about how she bounced back from the hit "Chased after him but lost him after three blocks."

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><p>Hotch walked into the police station and looked over at Emily and her father laughing.<p>

"Aaron?" Emily said seeing Hotch walk over to the desk sergeant "What are you doing here?"

"Bailing you out" Hotch said sighing, eyeing the older man next to her.

"How did you know I was here?" Emily asked.

"What the hell were you thinking, breaking into a amusement park to ride a carousel?" Hotch said putting his hands on his hips.

She looked over at the sergeant "You told him?"

"No" the desk sergeant said looking afraid of the angry brunette.

"This was your doing wasn't it?" Hotch asked Ray "You had my girlfriend commit a felony."

"We weren't charged" Ray said "And besides it's only..."

"Trespassing, breaking and entering." the desk sergeant finished.

"How the hell did you find out?" Emily asked then seen him avoid her eyes, "You had me followed?"

"No" Hotch said looking guilty, "I had Ray followed."

"Who?" Emily asked looking into the station, "You didn't tell Dave did you?"

"Who's Dave?" Ray asked.

"Her father figure" Hotch said looking down at Emily's biological father, "Someone who never gave up on her."

Emily's heartbroke when she saw Ray's face fall at that, "Aaron" Emily said, "How dare you have me followed?"

"It's not you that I had followed." Hotch said reasonably, "It's him, Anderson told me how the two of you argued outside the coffee shop..."

"Anderson?" Emily repeated angrily, "You had Anderson follow my Dad?"

"He is a capable Federal Agent" Hotch said reasonably "And I knew we should have never trusted that man."

"You never did" Emily argued "And he's not that man, he's my Dad."

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><p>"You're both free to go" the desk sergeant said looking at the paper work "The owner said he remembers you both from years ago and asked you pay a fee to fix the broken light from when you two tried to turn on the carousel..."<p>

"Thank you" Ray said standing up, looking over at Hotch, "This is the one you're seeing, huh? Nice looking guy, but he should smile more."

Ray walked out of the police station, Emily followed him out quickly.

"Ray?" Emily called out, "Please, I'm sorry about Aaron."

"It's ok, he loves you and that's all a father wants for his daughter" Ray said, "And don't worry about that Dave thing, I'm glad you have someone that looks out for you that way. It seems like you have alot of people looking out for you."

"Well where are you going?" Emily asked, "Do you have some place to stay?"

"I'm going to go check into a hotel." Ray told her.

"No" Emily said pulling out her key, "Here, I'll probably stay at Aaron's tonight, so you can stay at my place until you're ready to head back home."

Looking at the key, "I don't know, Emily..."

Placing the spare key in his hand, "In case you change your mind. I hope you do." Emily said, "Now if you'll excuse me I have to go yell at my boyfriend."

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><p>Emily walked over to the car, "What the hell was that?"<p>

"What?" Hotch asked, "What did I do wrong?"

"Uh have me and my Father followed for one" Emily said, "By a co-worker no less. What the hell was that?"

"He's using you Emily" Hotch said, "Garcia couldn't find his name in any known hospital database, he's probably lying about dying. And he's flat broke. You and your family come from money..."

"That?" Emily asked, "You went through his history? Who asked you to? He's not an unsub Hotch, he's my Father. I know he's dying."

"Emily" Hotch said calmly, "I think it's great that you want to put your past at rest with him and make peace, but he's lying. There's no trace of him for the past five years. Not in any trace in American database. I'm just trying to protect you."

Emily felt him pull her close into a hug, "You can't trust him, he'll only let you down."

Emily pulled back, giving him a harsh look, "He's my father not yours. I'm sorry you had a bad relationship with your own father and didn't get a chance to make peace with him or tell him off, but back off. This is my father and whether he's lying or not about dying is my business not yours."

Hotch saw the anger in her eyes, "You don't get to dictate how I choose to either let him in or not." Emily said, "So I think I'll be staying at my apartment tonight, and hopefully my father will be there, too. Because I invited him."

"Emily" Hotch said when she walked over to hail a cab "Please..."

A cab pulled up in front as she opened the door, "I still love you, Aaron, but I'm mad right now. So unless you're going to apologize for your behavior, we have nothing to talk about."

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><p>Hotch pulled his SUV up to Emily's building, deep in thought. Worried for Emily.<p>

He knew he was wrong in his choice of action, but all he wanted was to protect Emily from the heartache of a father who will do nothing but disappoints.

Then he realized he wasn't talking about her father anymore, he was thinking of his own. Hotch got out of his car and walked towards the building.

_'Jesus, Aaron' _Hotch berated himself internally _'Way to transfer your emotions. Her father may not be winning an awards in the Dad department but he's not mine.' _

Coming to the elevator, Hotch vowed to try and be more patient for Emily's sake, he loved her too much to lose her over this.

Hotch stepped out of the elevator and saw Emily sitting outside her apartment door, crying.

Rushing over to her, he kneeled next to her.

"Emily?" Hotch said, "Honey, what's the matter?"

Not looking at him, she just wipes her eyes with her sleeve.

"I'm waiting." Emily said distantly not looking at him.

"Sweetie, I'm so sorry." Hotch said, "You know me, I never apologize. I never wanted to hurt you."

"He's gone." Emily quietly whispered looking up at Hotch.

Covering his mouth with his hand, he shook his head, "I'm sorry Ray left."

"No, he's gone." Emily repeated shoving open the front door, Hotch looked up to see Ray laying on the couch not moving "I already called 911, they're

Getting up he rushed over towards the man, while Emily got up and said, "I already called 911, they're sending someone over."

Hotch leaned over to Ray, checking for a pulse, then looked up at Emily's tear stained face.

"No, no, no don't touch him" Emily said grabbing at Hotch's shirt "They said we're not suppose to touch the body."

Hotch pulled Emily to him, whispering, "Oh God, Emily. I'm so sorry."

Hotch rocked her while she clung to his shirt, silently crying.

"I didn't get a chance to say goodbye" Emily whispered.

Hotch's mind flashed back to the hospital and remembered Reid saying the same thing.

"He was all alone." Emily sobbed lightly into his shirt.

Hotch looked down at the picture in Ray's hand.

"No he wasn't." He leaned over and picked it up, handing it to Emily, "He had you."

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><p>Gloria Naylor said, "Old as she was, she still missed her daddy sometimes."<p>

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><p><strong>The End <strong>

The review button thinks you're ignoring him, leave a review and tell me what you think.

Well this was an attempt, I'm not sure how it good it was but it popped into my head.


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